The Near East and North Africa (NENA) region has limited forest resources with limited potential for timber production. However, NENA forests has huge potential for the production of a wide range of NonWood Forest Products (NWFPs) and the utilization of NWFPs by local communities for food, fodder, medicine and income generation have been practiced for millennia. However, the transaction of most of the NWFPs still remains in the informal sector with only limited commodities that have documented contribution to local and national economies and recorded statistics on their export earnings

The workshop was aimed at discussing and sharing experiences at the regional level on the promotion of non-wood forest products-based rural microenterprises and to develop a regional project. The specific objectives of the workshop included: 1) To provide participants with a brief synthesis on the outcomes of the country studies; 2) elaborate the CN into a full project proposal by agreeing on the project scope, long term impact, outcome and project components; 3) develop the project result matrix and detailed project budget; and 4) identify potential resource partners.